About Jack Kaplan

During the famous WWI Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, Jack, a 22-year old combat engineer was exhausted after four days of shelling and rain, and became separated from his unit. He lay down in the straw of a barn at the edge of the battlefield, and soon fell into a sound sleep.

Suddenly, Jack's long-dead grandfather Lipa appeared to Jack in a dream, and exclaimed:

Translated: Jacob! Get up! Get up!)

Jack, startled, jumped up and raced out of the barn. Within seconds, a German shell made a direct hit on the barn, obliterating it. Jack lived to tell the story to his daughter Bea, who in turn passed it on to her children and grandchildren.

World War I was a catastrophe for numerous members of our family, whether or not they served in the military. Our oral and documentary history reveal that many of our ancestral villages were burned to the ground, families were forced to flee their homelands as refugees, and many died from the worldwide flu epidemic enabled by wartime conditions.

Members of our family served in the military of both the Entente and the Central powers on all major fronts. Thus far we have documented family members in the US, British, Russian, Romanian, German and Austro-Hungarian armies and navies. Please email me if you are aware of other individuals who should be included.

We know of at least six relatives who died during the war, in the Battles of Tannenburg 1914, Ypres 1914, Isonzo 1915, Bucharest 1916, and Piave 1918, and in the prisoner of war camp at Neuhammer a Quais.